I decided to read this series after going through all of the books in Hamilton’s Anita Blake series. I knew going into the series that this one would have more sex in it than the early Anita Blake books, and I’m going to reiterate that to anyone who reads this. This isn’t the series for you if you don’t like reading erotica. Seriously.

The focus of this book is back on solving crimes instead of on Anita’s romantic relationships, which was a positive thing. That’s when I like her best, to be honest – when she’s working on cases and trying to solve preternatural crimes.

I had to start reading this book more than once before it really caught me. I think that I just needed to get past those first few pages before I was sure that I could really follow along and enjoy it.

So much goes on in this book that it’s actually kind of overwhelming. I knew a lot of it first, because I watched the third season of Game of Thrones before I got to this volume, but it really only goes about halfway. Everything after that is new material. And let me tell you, I definitely knew when I hit that point. It was like, POW!, Red Wedding, and then everything just went to hell in a handbasket afterwards.

For starters, it’s the longest so far. I originally thought the length would be a bit daunting, but it turned out to be really fun because it allowed for a more complex storyline. This was also the first volume in the series so far that really went into detail about some of the other characters – particularly ones that we hadn’t met before, like the ones from the other wizarding schools – and into more of the wizarding world outside of Hogwarts.